Say howdy to Audi ... in our motorsport 'heartland'

Australia's most popular motor racing category, which prides itself on its "heartland" image, will be led by a quarter of a million dollars worth of German luxury cars.

Say howdy to Audi ... in our motorsport 'heartland'

23 March 2003Toby Hagon and Joshua Dowling

Audi will lead this year's Ford-versus-Holden Australian V8 Supercar Championship. Two luxury Audi A6s have been chosen to lead the pack of Ford and Holden V8s as safety cars, a move which has sparked outrage among motorsport observers – and Ford and Holden.

In a deal organisers say was worth a "substantial six-figure sum", Audi will supply two A6 V8s as pace cars for all 13 rounds of the championship including the 1000-kilometre race at Bathurst – to be used when racing is stopped for accidents or poor weather.

The company will also provide two A6s – worth $120,000 each – to senior managers of AVESCO, the governing body of V8 Supercars.

Audi, which hasn't been involved in motorsport locally since 1998, is keen to push its presence as a manufacturer of high-performance cars.

The company says it was approached by AVESCO and decided it was a worthwhile investment in an effort to attract the target market for the A6.

"We like to challenge convention with things that we do," Audi spokeswoman Anna Burgdorf said.

"Because we've had so much success in motorsport it's quite a good link.

"We also have a host of V8 models we're launching this year and it provides an alternate platform to market that. Everyone was expecting a Ford or a Holden. It makes sense for us to be involved."

But Holden believes AVESCO has become too greedy, in the process alienating the two manufacturers who make the series a success.

"It's very disappointing that organisers of a Holden versus Ford sport need to go outside their two main manufacturers to get a pace car," said a Holden insider who did not wish to be named.

While no one would comment on the record, Sunday Drive understands the cost for the rights to supply the pace cars has "almost doubled" this year to "about $250,000".

AVESCO chairman Tony Cochrane – who, along with chief executive Wayne Cattach, gets the use of an Audi A6 road car for the year -- said both Ford and Holden declined the opportunity to supply pace cars.

"There's nothing set in stone that the pace car has to be a Ford or a Holden," Cochrane said. "We're [AVESCO] not some sort of charity, we're running a professional level of motorsport. So it's purely a commercial decision."

Cochrane said to qualify for the V8 Supercar pace car duties the cars must be powered by a V8 and "look the part".

However, Holden could not justify the mounting cost of the pace-car program, which for the past two years has been handled by Ford.

"If we saw the value in it we would have done it, but as it stands what they're [AVESCO] asking is a joke," said the Holden insider. "At the end of the day it's no big deal. It's who wins the races that matters."

Ford Australia president Geoff Polites said the business case didn't stack up this year.

"It just didn't make a lot of sense," said Polites, who said the past two years of supplying the pace cars had provided good exposure for the Falcon.

"We were offered it and didn't think it was worth the asking price. We knew they had an alternative [manufacturer], so it doesn't concern me overly."

The 2003 V8 Supercar Championship kicked off on the weekend with the Clipsal 500 pair of 250-kilometre races on the Adelaide street circuit.